Portland's Tavern Books specializes in lost poetry and translated works

The legacy of literature is that it lingers. Stories and poems survive the deaths of their authors, war, censorship. Decades later, glimpses of characters and story arcs remain embedded in our minds, harking back to the time and place when we first read Roald Dahl or Samuel Beckett or T.S. Eliot.

Portland publisher Tavern Books, and its catalog The Living Library, is rooted in reverence for sustaining the voices of poets, reviving notable out of print books, and printing them in perpetuity so that their content does not diminish to bits and pieces of memory but remains viable and intact and available to be read. The publishing house also features a number of translated works by international writers.

A nonprofit organization, Tavern Books was founded by poets and translators Michael McGriff and Carl Adamshick. In addition to publishing titles, their ambitious and community-minded programming includes Poetry State, a program designed to build and sustain poetry collections in Oregon libraries; the Pylon Reading Society reading and lecture series; and The Honest Pint, a subscription series edited by Matthew Dickman.

"We found that many of the poetry books we loved had fallen out of print and were so obscure that you had to be willing to spend hundreds of dollars to buy them from antiquarian booksellers," McGriff said in an email. "In 2009 we decided to venture out and form a publishing house that would focus on reprinting the books we loved, a large portion of which turned out to be books in translation.

"We feel that reading international literature is a unique gateway to other cultures, forgotten histories, and the human story. We are very lucky to have published more books by the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature recipient Tomas Tranströmer than any other English-language press in the world. Less than 3 percent of the books published in the U.S. are works in translation; over 50 percent of the books we publish are translated works, of which several are by authors published by no other press in the U.S. (Natan Zach, Leonoardo Sinisgalli, Ferenc Juhasz, Eunice Odio)."

Tavern prefers to print single volumes of book-length works to maintain artistic integrity of the poet's vision, instead of the more common "selected poems" format. Nelly Sachs' "Glowing Enigmas" (available April 2, translated by Michael Hamburger) is a book-length poem never before printed in its entirety in one volume. It is widely considered the Nobel Prize winner's seminal work.

Also available April 2 is Part One of Eunice Odio's "The Fire's Journey." Tavern will publish the entire poem across four volumes, making this masterpiece of 20th-century Latin American poetry available in English translation for the first time.

At a time when the primacy of the printed book seems to be receding from daily life, the work of publishers such as Tavern Books makes a difference in maintaining the culture of the book and the tradition of literature. Access to works in translation from around the globe helps ensure that lens is not narrowed.

The Poetry State program acquires and donates poetry books to Oregon libraries, with a particular preference given to libraries serving populations of under 5,000 and tribal communities. To date, Tavern has donated 2,500 books to 19 libraries in 14 counties, reaching some of Oregon's most remote and underserved communities. Board Member Paulann Petersen recognizes the value of this endeavor.

"As Oregon Poet Laureate, I have the privilege of being an ambassador for poetry in our state," Petersen said in an email. "What could further that endeavor any better than making Tavern Books' Poetry State an official Poet Laureate project? Nothing."

The Honest Pint subscription-only print journal is available for $5 per month and features one short essay written by a notable contemporary writer that discusses and celebrates the work of a poet, and is often accompanied by some form of art or ephemera.

"This non-traditional take on a poetics journal is a new, quirky way to think about poets and poetry. As with our books, we love the marriage of good design, quality content, and looking at things from a new angle. We value the relationship between image and text, and we value making things affordable for the average reader," McGriff said in an email.

"We also like keeping our future authors a secret -- we love the idea of opening up a monthly piece of mail and delighting in its surprise contents. So far, we have Pints authored by Albert Goldbarth, Diane Wakoski, and Michael Wiegers ... We want to dispel the notion that people don't 'get' poetry. The reality is that readers and writers across all genres turn to poetry for inspiration and meaning. We want The Honest Pint to be a reflection of the way people interact with, think about, and appreciate poetry."

The next Pylon Society event is "Tranströmer Night" featuring a reading and discussion with poet and translator Malena Mörling. Mörling will read from her translations of Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer and discuss the process of studying and translating work by the 2011 Nobel Laureate. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. April 6 at Division Leap, 6635 N. Baltimore St., Suite 132.